Come and knock on our door, we've been waiting for you!

I am pretty proud of our guest room, I have to say.  After years of compelling guests to crash on the couch or stay on our pull-out sofa in the office, it feels pretty swanky to have a room set up specifically for that purpose at all times.  If someone were to randomly drop in and need a room, they could be sleeping in their own private space in 2.5 seconds, no need to pull out a lumpy mattress or move aside stuff that is usually in regular use.  We got extremely lucky that the room was already a warm khaki color, which I had been planning on painting our future guest room back when we were in planning mode.  All I needed to do was add some chocolate brown stripes (the previous owners were nice enough to leave some extra paint from when they painted the dining room) and a couple of accessories, and we were set!

I have had a lot of fun styling the room since it is essentially a museum between rare guest visits.  Emily Henderson (www.stylebyemilyhenderson.com) is amazing at nightstands, so I have been trying to emulate her style with this small part of our home.  You can't really see it in this photo, but it has a dark wood tray, water carafe, water glass, lamp, and small ceramic shoe.  I think I still need to add a piece of art behind the tray and resting on the wall for more of an impact, but I'm not sure.  I'm always torn about the surfaces in a guest room since people inevitably bring lots of stuff and need a place to set it, and if I have a ton of decorative stuff they don't have as much space, but art doesn't take up too much space.  I may move that little painting on the wall above the bed to the nightstand and find something better for that focal spot.  We'll see if we ever find that perfect piece, otherwise, less effort = awesome and the small art will stay.

Let me zoom in on another controversial spot in the room:

I saw this idea in Young House Love's new book, and I tried to pull it off in my own space.  It seemed like the perfect solution for adding another side table in a part of the room where a regular sized nightstand would block the closet door.  I found the chair itself at World Market for $10 at the end of the fall season and added some hardcover books that were of similar size.  Plop an alarm clock on top and it's a nightstand, right?  Jeremy is skeptical, but one can at least set down a pair of glasses or a cell phone, I think.  We'll see how it shapes up over time.

So there it is, what do you think?  Wanna come by?